Modi breaks silence, to punish chopper thieves

Hosur (TN): In his first public comments since the AgustaWestland issue broke out, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday dubbed the controversial deal a “chori” (theft) and indicated that the guilty, howsoever big, would not be spared. Without naming Congress, Modi also attacked the party which has launched a counter-attack on his government for dragging the name Sonia Gandhi, asking “if the court in Italy has said that people from the last government in India have eaten money, why then are you troubling us here? “Does anyone of your relatives live in Italy? Does any of my relatives live in Italy…. I have not seen Italy. I have not been to Italy. Nor have I met anyone in Italy. If Italians have accused them what should we do?” Modi said.

“Those involved in helicopter chori, should they be punished or not? Should legal action be taken against them or not. However big they are, should action be taken against them or not? I want to know from the people of Tamil Nadu,” said Modi at an election rally here on Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border”. He said people of Tamil Nadu should now be knowing why people in New Delhi “don’t allow” Modi to work. “It is because he (Modi) has tightened the screws. This has affected the corrupt. It has disturbed their sleep. So they are attacking me,” Modi said.PTI

Parrikar: Unlike Bofors, wrongdoers in AgustaWestland case will be punished

New Delhi: Mounting attack on Congress, the government on Friday said the previous UPA government had “done everything” to help AgustaWestland bag the chopper deal and asserted that the main beneficiaries of the kickbacks will be tracked so that “may be we can do” what “we could not do in Bofors”. In a hard-hitting speech in the Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the “entire corruption” in the deal took place during the UPA tenure but former Air chief S P Tyagi and Gautam Khaitan are “small people” who “simply washed their hands in a flowing ganga (of corruption)” and that the government will “find out where the river was going”. PTI

Manmohan, Sonia, Rahul court arrest to ‘save democracy’

New Delhi: A combative Sonia Gandhi on Friday accused the Modi government of ‘murdering’ democracy and unleashing a campaign of “baseless allegations” against the opposition, as top Congress leaders hit the streets and courted arrest near Parliament. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi were taken into custody along with Sonia Gandhi, who predicted that the Government’s days were numbered the way it was functioning. “Do not try to frighten or defame us… life has taught me to struggle, we have faced a lot of challenges. They don’t know what we are made of,” she said addressing the party’s ‘Save Democracy’ rally at Jantar Mantar here. Asserting that her party will play role of an “alert” opposition with “full vigour” both inside and outside Parliament, she asked partymen to “unmask” the Modi Government. PTI Cong president Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh courting arrest during their Loktantra Bachao March in New Delhi on Friday. PTI